


I Love You and I Like You

by Kassierole, Sarcastic_Soulmate



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Adorable Leslie Knope, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Ben Wyatt, benslie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25553662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kassierole/pseuds/Kassierole, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarcastic_Soulmate/pseuds/Sarcastic_Soulmate
Summary: A collection of parks and rec drabbles by me and my friend:)Only rated T because I don’t really know where this is gonna go but there will probably lots of fluff ✌️
Relationships: Andy Dwyer/April Ludgate, Ann Perkins/Chris Traeger, Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Comments: 13
Kudos: 15





	1. No one likes calzones™️

**Author's Note:**

> Ben makes everyone try calzones and they end up liking them.

Leslie and friends were deciding what to have for lunch. “What about pizza? Pizza’s always good.” Leslie suggested.

“What about-“ Ben started to say.

“Don’t say it!” Tom exclaimed.

“Calzones.” 

“No!” Tom said.

everyone groaned and booed.

“I don’t understand why you all hate calzones. Give them a try.”

Ron came out of his office. “Last time I tried a calzone, I got food poisoning.” He said in a serious voice.

“Yea, so did I. So did you!” Tom said.

“I think they sound interesting,” Andy suggested.

“See? Andy gets it.”

“No! Andy! Save yourself!” Tom yelled.

“How about this. I will buy all of you calzones but you have to at least try them.” Ben suggested.

They all groaned and complained, and eventually, reluctantly, agreed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
They arrived at the calzone place, and Ben ordered calzones for each of them.

Tom cringed and bit into it. “Ew! Why would you make me try- huh this isn’t actually that bad… YOU BRAINWASHED ME INTO LIKING THEM! THE CALZONES BRAINWASHED ME!”

Ben sat there, unamused. 

Leslie ate one. “It’s ok.. I like it better when you make them,” She looked at Ben.

Ron bit into one. “Where’s the meat?”

“There should be pepperoni in there-“

Andy ate one. “Hey, that’s not bad! April, you should try one!”

April looked at Andy, then tried it. “It’s pizza, but it’s a pocket so they can fit people’s souls in there.”

Jerry/Terry/Larry/Garry quietly sat and ate the calzone. “This is a good suggestion, Ben. Thanks”

“So you like them?” Ben said to everyone.

They looked at each other, embarrassed.

“No.” They blurted out.

“Ok.. that’s what I thought.” He smiled, then when everyone was done eating they left.

*Written by Kassierole*


	2. Worth It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when Ben catches Leslie in the middle of the night crying from guilt?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written by Sarcastic_Soulmate

Leslie woke up at 2am, trapped in a warm embrace. She smiles as she glances to her left at her captor, and quietly peels herself away from Ben's arms. He frowns in his sleep, as if he had been conscious enough to notice her disappearance.

Her ethics trial was yesterday, the day that Ben gave up his job and their feelings for each other were on the record. She walks into her living room; sitting on her couch and letting the guilt consume her.

_What if Ben looks at me one day and realizes it wasn't worth it? What if I lose the election and he's so disappointed in me that he leaves? What if he stops loving me? I'm not worth this much hassle, he's going to break up with me, and regret quitting his job, I just know it. I'm not beautiful Ann, and he must know that. I'm not worth this. I'm not._

The tears fall out so quickly and silently that they almost go unnoticed. She drops her head into her hands and feels herself sliding off the couch, onto the floor. She buries her head into the hardwood and tries to think of happy things, but her mind is blank of positivity. All she can think about is Ben looking at her with disgust and then running off with Hot Rebecca. Tall, beautiful, brunette Rebecca that was born to be with him, not short, blonde Leslie who was broken up with so many times.

//

Ben shifted in his sleep and woke up, reaching to his right to feel Leslie's soft body next to him and know everything is right in the world, but his hand landed on the empty space. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he sat up to look around the room, to no avail.

He stands up and opens the door to venture out into the hallway. He hears a sniffle and his eyes widen in alarm as he reaches the living room and witnesses the sight of Leslie's body cross-legged on the floor, her back facing him while she wipes her eyes.

Ben immediately rushes to her side, only thinking about whether or not she would want that until it was too late. He lovingly pulls a loose strand of hair behind her ear and kisses her temple.

"What's-" She coughs. "What's wrong?"

Leave it to Leslie to be concerned about him when she's in a sad state.

"It's 2am and you're crying on the floor. What could possibly be wrong?"

"G-Go back to sleep. You need sleep."

He ignores that and gently rubs her waist.

"What's wrong?"

Leslie coughs again. "I feel so.... guilty." 

"What? Why?" 

"You gave up your job for me, and I don't deserve that. I'm not worth that. I'm not a curvy brunette with a killer smile. I'm not even tall. And here I am making it all about me when you just lost your job and I honestly don't know why you put up with me-

"Leslie-

"I'm sorry, Ben. I'm so sorry." Leslie mumbles, her voice cracking. 

"I'm not." 

"Yeah, I mean- wait, what?" Leslie stutters in alarm. 

"I wouldn't have given it up if I didn't think it was worth it. It's not much compared to you." He nervously grins. 

"Oh, I see what's going on here, you've gone insane." 

Ben wants to chuckle in amusement but doesn't once he looks back up at Leslie's tear-covered, guilt-stricken face, and his heart breaks.

"Look. I resigned, but I have a good resumé; I can find something else. And it's not like you're not giving anything up either. And the tall brunette thing, I really don't know where Chris got that from. I think I dated a couple on the road, and Chris made an assumption. I much prefer short, cute blondes who never sleep and have never-ending passion." He smiles. 

Leslie hiccups. "Really?" She said, wiping her eyes and pushing her hair away from her face. 

"Really." He starts to stand and grabs at Leslie's waist to help her up. "Let's go to bed." 

"No, I don't feel like sleeping." Leslie whined, standing up and leaning against Ben. 

A mischievous grin appeared on his face. "Who said we were going to sleep?" He said as he pulled her up the stairs.


	3. The Escape Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie, Ben, April, Andy, and Ron participate in an escape room together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a lot of effort lol ~ Sarcastic_Soulmate

Leslie was at a table filling a binder. Ben walked over. “What’s this one for?” She flipped through some of the pages to get to the title page, then looked at him, excitedly. “How would you like to go to an escape room?”

“That sounds pretty interesting..”

Leslie flipped through a couple more pages. “Here’s the plot.”

“Oh no! You're trapped in a cell! Can you figure out who the sick captor is and escape the room?” Ben read the page out loud.

“I think they’ll give more details when we get there..” Leslie said, then laughed.

“If that’s all the info, what else is in the binder?” He asked, lovingly.

“Oh I’m carefully looking at the website to see if there are any clues that could help us escape!” She said. “Can we invite April and Andy?” She added.

“Sure, if they wanna come,” he replied.

Leslie called April. “April, do you and Andy wanna come to an escape room with us?”

“It’ll probably be super creepy and scary so yes.” April replied.

“Can we also invite Ron?” Leslie asked Ben. “He likes puzzles,” she added.

“That’s fine.”

Leslie called Ron.

“How did you get this number?” Ron asked, sternly.

“I’ve had your number for years, Ron. I thought you knew that.” She laughed.

“What do you want, Leslie?”

“Do you want to go to an escape room with Ben, April, Andy, and me?” She asked. “There’ll be puzzles,” she added in a persuasive tone.

“Fine.” He answered.

“Great!” She exclaimed.

She smiled, and went back to binder making.

~~~~~~~~~

Leslie and Ben reached the Pawnee Activities Center first, Leslie bouncing around in excitement. She practically jumped out of the passenger side, and Ben feigned a groan at her eagerness, but failing because he couldn't hide his smile. He closed his car door and caught up to her to take her hand and lace their fingers together.

They sit down inside the lobby waiting for Ron, April, and Andy, with Ben lifting her hand every few minutes and kissing it.

Ron shows up a few minutes later and nods to Leslie and sits down, putting a few seats between them like the lone wolf that he is.

April and Andy pull into the parking lot and get out of the car.

"You're so smart, babe." Andy says, gesturing to the fake blood capsules in her hands.

April just grins as they walk inside.

Ben is the first to notice them. He looks at April in confusion. "April, what are you doing?"

"What?" She glares at Ben. Leslie leans on his shoulder.

She follows his gaze to the capsules in her hands. "Oh, these? They're just in case." She grins evilly.

"Of what?" Ron pipes up, hiding the hint of a smile.

April ignores him and starts making out with Andy.

"Good lord." Ben said, averting his eyes and sliding an arm around Leslie's waist.

April rolls her eyes at them and continues kissing him while they all avoid looking in that direction. An old lady holding a black folder walks out from a personnel area and widens her eyes at the sight. She clears her throat, and they fortunately stop, much to Ben's delight and turn to look at her.

The old lady smiles at the group. "Hi, I'm Mila, I'm here to tell you the basics of the escape room." She opens the black folder and starts to read. "You are all trapped in a dark cell by a serial killer who has a bomb hidden inside the building. There will be a series of puzzles that you have to complete within one hour. If you don't complete the puzzles within the time allotment, the bomb will detonate and you will all die. You will have this walkie talkie-" she pulls it out of her pocket and hands it to Leslie. "And you will get 3 hints. Press the button and ask for a clue to get one or to ask how much time you have left. Are you ready?

"Yes. Yes. YES." April says excitedly. "I hope there's blood. These capsules aren't real blood." She says sullenly.

"Thank goodness for that." Ben mutters.

Mila leads them down a hall into a scarily accurate-looking prison cell. April's eyes widen in excitement at the dark and creepy room. She locks it, and walks away, throwing a smile after the group.

"Okay, so what now?" Ben asks warily.

"I guess we should look around. Not much here though." Leslie whispers.

"Guys, guys! What if.... the escape room was all in our heads? Maybe we've been dead this entire time." Andy says excitedly, as if he had said something life changing.

Ron and Leslie just blink exasperatedly at him in silence.

"Well?"

"Andy..." April trails off.

"Oh, my God! How could I forget? Burt Macklin is on the case." He whips his shades on from out of nowhere, but trips and falls against the wall.

Part of the stone wall crashes down to the floor, breaking into many small pieces. Everyone all starts talking at once, and Ron has to quiet them down.

"Shut up! And look at me!"

They immediately quiet.

"Look inside. It's a secret passage." He giggles. "I love puzzles!"

Leslie presses the button on the walkie-talkie. "How much time do we have left?"

"50 minutes. " A short reply, but a quick and helpful one.

They venture down the dark hallway.

"Oh crap! I left my binder in the car!" Leslie suddenly shouts.

//

The hallway is dark and eerie, April's natural habitat. The grin stayed on her face the whole way down the hall.

"Hey, guys, look at this." Leslie says, gesturing to a dark brown wooden door.

"People really don't know how to finish wood correctly." Ron says with exasperation in his voice.

Leslie touches the padlock on the door. "It's a 4-digit code. Where do we find it?"

Ben's hand goes out to rub her arm soothingly.

"Well, those crates I saw earlier could be something." Andy said.

"Andy!" April exclaims.

"What?"

"You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?" Leslie's hands go to her hips.

"I didn't know!"

"Son, how could you not know? This is an escape room. Everything is a clue!" Ron bellows.

"Yeah, and aren't you supposedly 'Burt Macklin, FBI Agent'? You used to sneak into my room for murder clues.'" Ben said.

"Ok, let's stop attacking Andy. That won't do anything." Leslie reasons.

"I'll go look at the crates." April said.

"I'll go with you." Leslie said.

//

They walked back down the hall, and their eyes quickly locked on 2 medium-sized crates. April opens the first one by kicking it.

"April!"

"What? It opened, didn't it?"

Leslie shakes her head in defeat as she sits on the ground and pries open the second crate.

April sighs in annoyance. "Nothing in here. Just a lame amount of construction paper."

"Same here. Except, what's that?"

Leslie reaches for something white sticking out of the stack of black construction paper.

"What?" April asked.

"It's an envelope." Leslie peels at the seal of the envelope with her nail and it pops open. She pulls out a piece of paper.

"What does it say?" April asked, the excitement on her face making a comeback.

"It's a poem. It sounds familiar; I think it's from Robert Frost. "

"Ben's nerd stuff is rubbing off." April deadpans as Leslie starts to read the poem out loud.

_between the **woods**_

_and frozen lake - the darkest_

_evening of the year_

_two roads diverge_

_in leaves no step had_

_**trodden** black_

_the only other sound_

_the **sweep** of easy wind _

_and downy flake_

_a young beech_

**_clinging_ ** _to its_

_last years leaves_

"Do you notice something about some of the words?" Leslie asked, narrowing her eyes at the paper.

"Yeah... they seem a little darkened?"

"Yeah. Just ever so slightly."

"Should we ask for a clue?" April questioned.

"I think so." She presses the button.

"Mila, does this poem have something to do with the door code?" Leslie asked.

"Yes, it does. You have 2 clues left."

"Wait, Leslie?"

"Yeah?"

"It's the words. There's 4 of them. 4 digits. " April gestures wildly down the hall in the direction of the door.

"Oh! Count the letters!" Leslie gasped.

"Yeah. But why these words specifically?" April asked.

"Who knows?" Leslie replied.

"Woods, trodden, sweep, clinging. 5, 7, 5, 8." April says.

"Let's go." Leslie gets up. They walk quickly to where Ron, Ben, and Andy were standing.

"We have the code." April and Leslie say simultaneously.

"Oh, thank god." Ben exhales. "Ron was about to punch the lock."

"I don't know why we didn't do that. That's a really good idea." Andy chimes in.

Leslie sighs. "Out of the way. April, you want to do the honors?"

April rolls her eyes and nods, taking a step closer to the door to grab the lock.

The clicking sound of the lock when it opens is music to their ears.

"Yes!" Andy shouts over the sound of the rest of them cheering.

April opens the door. It's a slightly more lit room, with a small lamp in the corner of the room accentuating the desk in the middle of the room. There's a safe under the desk. There's a list of the Periodic Table of Elements taped to the wall with a sticky note on it with some kind of scribble on it, and a chair in another corner of the area.

Leslie pulls out the walkie-talkie. "How much time do we have left?"

"30 minutes. "

"Crap." Leslie mutters.

Ron runs his fingers along the wall, looking for another secret passage. "There's a faint line running down the wall. Almost like an elevator."

"Good to know." Ben said.

"What's going on with this safe?" Andy asks curiously, lifting it up.

"Andy, don't-

He drops the safe and it lands on Leslie's foot, shoving her to the floor. Everyone starts yelling at once, Ben's voice being loudest of all.

"BABE!" He kneels by her side.

"Can you get up?" Ron asks, a hint of concern in his voice.

"I don't know."

"I'm so sorry, Leslie."

Ben springs into action and lifts her off the ground into his arms, setting her on the chair in the corner.

She smiles, a genuine one, looking at Ben. "Thanks." She winces in pain, and Ben's heart breaks as he turns to look at Andy with rage.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"It's fine, Ben. " She winces again, and Ben gets even more mad.

"No, it's not!"

"Just... continue on the escape room. I'll help from afar. I would suggest checking out that Periodic Table of Elements."

"Good call."

"Nerd." April says.

He glares at April as he looks at the chart. "This sticky note... it just says 'fear us' on it."

"That's so dark and awesome." April says in awe.

"I love puzzles!" Ron claps his hands and giggles as he walks over to Ben.

"It's something with these letters." Ben concludes.

"The numbers from the elements on the note is the code for the safe!" Ron shouts.

"I know Fe is Iron. Shut up, April. " Ben says, as she opens her mouth.

They take a few minutes to carefully examine the table, making sure they aren't missing anything.

Leslie gets up to help, hopping over on one leg to them.

"Leslie, you should be sitting down." Ron said, while Ben slid his arm around her waist protectively to keep her steady.

"I'm not going to sit down and do nothing." She says, quickly scanning the chart.

"Ar is Argon. U is uranium. S is sulfur. The numbers are 26, 18, 92, and 16."

Ben stares at her in admiration. "How did you do that?"

"My dad and I used to study the Periodic Table." She said, staring straight ahead.

Ben rubs her waist in an effort to comfort her, and kisses her temple. He helps Leslie over to the safe so she can punch the numbers in.

"26, 18, 92, 16." Leslie whispers repeatedly as she punches in the numbers.

She pulls on the handle of the safe and it opens. "We did it!"

"No, you did it." Ron says, clearly proud of her, although he would never admit it.

Leslie pulls out the small piece of paper in the safe. She reads it aloud.

_a young beech_

_clinging to its_

_last year's leaves_

"A young beech clinging to its last year's leaves." Her face looks thoughtful for a moment. "Where have I heard that from?" Her eyes suddenly widen, recognition written all over her face.

"April! It's the poem. Or the last part of it, that is." 

Ben reaches for the walkie-talkie and presses the button. 

"How much time do we have left?" 

"10 minutes." 

"Oh no." 

"Ben, give me the walkie-talkie."

"What? Why? "

"Just do it." April glares at him, as if daring him to challenge her. He hands it over, and she presses the button, her face slightly nervous.

"Mila?" 

"Yes?" 

"I've figured it out. The serial killer, or rather, killers, as we've just discovered, are people who are afraid of growing old. 'A young beech clinging on to its last year's leaves' sounds like someone trying desperately to hold on to their youth. They believe killing people is how to do it. I guess it makes them feel alive. How ironic. " She rolls her eyes. "If I'm right, the wall is going to open like an elevator and let us out of here." 

There's silence on the other side, as the wall that Ron was talking about opened and it led them to the back, overlooked area of the lobby. 

"April! That was so hot!" Andy cheers, and they start making out again. 

Ron nods at her in his proudness of her. 

Ben walks with Leslie, supporting her weight effortlessly (she really does weigh nothing), and calls out to April. 

"That was amazing! Moral of the story, Leslie and April are the smartest human beings alive, and we should all be scared." He says, feigning fear, but in reality just proud of his wife and his friend. 

"Yes, you should be." April says. 

"April, can I talk to you for a second?" 

April takes Leslie's arm to help her away from the group. 

"Do you still have those blood capsules?" 

"Yes. Oh my god, are you going to prank Ben?" 

Leslie just smiles evilly. 

"I want pictures," April says, pulling a few capsules out of her pockets and shoving them into Leslie's hand. Leslie puts them in her pocket, and limps back over to Ben. 

"I think we're going to head out now," Ben says, watching Leslie limp. "Yeah, I'm definitely carrying you to the car." 

Leslie just smiles as he lifts her up.


	4. The Prank War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> April and Andy have a prank war.

It was a normal afternoon when April decided to pull a prank on Andy. They happened to have kool aid powder, so April put some of that inside the shower. When the water turned on it would turn red.

The next morning

Andy had just gotten out of the shower, and noticed he was all red. He was concerned. He went to go talk to April. 

“You’re all red,” she said and laughed.

“Why am I all red?” 

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, looking at the kool aid powder that was out on the table.

A while later

He had gotten pranked by April! Now he was going to pull a prank on her.. 

He wrote “don’t lift this cup unless you want the spider to escape” on a cup and left the cup upside down on the table.

She walked past, and lifted the cup. There was sadly no spider under the cup. 

The next day at work

April went into Leslie's office.

“Hey April,” she said, looking up from the paperwork she was doing.

“Hey, I’m going to pull a prank on Andy,” she said excitedly.

“April..” she said, concerned. “What are you going to do?” She added, excitedly. 

April thought for a second.

“Wait I have a better idea!” Leslie exclaimed. “We prank Jerry instead! 

“Yes!”

“We can change the letters on his keyboard!” Leslie suggested.

“We can tape a horn to his chair,” April replied.

“We can cover his desk in post it notes,”

“We can hide a spider in his desk,”

“Ok no that’s too far-“ Leslie objected. “What about a whoopie cushion?”

“Ew Leslie no one uses whoopie cushions..”

Leslie got out a whoopie cushion that she had in fact been saving for Jerry. 

They both looked at each other, then ran to put the cushion on Jerry’s chair.

Jerry came back from the bathroom and went to sit down on his chair, when a loud farting sound occurred.

Everyone groaned. 

“Jerry!” Tom yelled.

A while later when Jerry got up, he noticed a colorful thing on his chair. He picked it up. “A whoopie cushion, guys? Really?”

Leslie and April laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a turn that I was not expecting because I couldn’t think of any pranks that would be funny for Andy; every prank that I thought of would be 1000x funnier if somebody did that to Jerry so that’s what happened 😳✌️
> 
> Also sorry I literally suck at endings 😩✌️


	5. The Door to Their Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann cries on the way to Michigan.

Ann knew she was moving on to better things. She had an amazing boyfriend and a baby on the way. Somehow it made it hurt more. 

Her pregnancy hormones were skyrocketing right now as more tears slipped out of her eyes. Chris whispers words of comfort as he's driving, but it doesn't help. She almost feels like she's choosing between her best friends and her future. She knows it's not like that, but the pain in her heart of leaving something behind was excruciating. 

Or maybe that was just heartburn. Still. 

The tears became less silent and she was soon full-on bawling. 

She cries the whole way to Michigan. Chris pulls over at their new house and gets out of the car to open her door for her and help her up.

"The house is beautiful." Ann says, her voice cracking as Chris pulls her into a hug. 

"It is." 

Ann wipes the tears from her eyes and chuckles in a self-deprecating way. "I must look terrible right now." 

"Ann Perkins, you have LITERALLY never looked more beautiful than you do right now." 

She leans against him sleepily as he goes to unlock the door. 

It was almost like the door to their future, and they couldn't have been more eager to open it.


	6. Coming Up Empty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> April and Andy (mostly April) relish in the beauty of the Grand Canyon. Set during S04E06, "End of the World."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm bored and this was fun to write.
> 
> Sue me.
> 
> No, seriously, I dare ya.

"I'm trying to find a way to be annoyed by it, but I'm coming up empty." April says, mesmerized by the view.

It was beautiful. Something about it just spoke to her. The indents in the rock, the long, deep path to the bottom, it was gorgeous.

Maybe some people would see it as a meaningless hole, but she didn't. And that's coming from her.

Even the horizon was lovely in this area.

April just wanted to sit down and let the wind and the view take her away into their world. She rolled her eyes at the thought, but was still intrigued.

Andy looked into her eyes and held her tightly, as if he understood all her emotions from a single glance. And he probably did.

They stand there in silence, April surprisingly not getting bored. She really is coming up empty.

But this time, it's a good thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: updating Drunken Distress soon!


End file.
